Independence Day Holiday - July 5, 2009: The State WIC Office, including the WIC Help Desk, will be closed on Monday, July 5, 2010. If you have questions, contact Mark Davis at Mark.Davis@health.mo.gov or 573-526-5323 or 800-392-8209.

FFY 2011 WIC LAP Webinars: In person WIC LAP Training will be conducted July 6 thru July 13, 2010. Experienced LAP users or those who only need a refresher on parts of the LAP do not need to attend the in person training and may instead view the FFY2011 LAP webinars. New this year, the webinars are separated into sections (LAP Overview; Agency Information; Employee; Line Items; Special Funding/Budget; Needs Identification; Goals, Objectives, Strategies and Evaluation; and Nutrition Sessions) and will show details of enhancements to this year’s LAP. You may view one section or all LAP webinar sections at your convenience. The webinars may be found online. Click on the link for the section you would like to view.

If you have questions about the training or webinars, please contact Betty Cassidy at 800-392-8209 or 573-751-6198 or by email at Betty.Cassidy@health.mo.gov.

Place Your Order for Text4Baby Promotional Posters: The State WIC office will print and make available for LWPs Text4Baby promotional posters and tear pads. WIC Coordinators received an order form by email asking you to choose the number and design of posters and the number of tear pads in English and Spanish that you would like for your agency. Thank you for the orders that were returned this week! Tear pads will be printed 50/pad. Orders will be mailed to your main site for distribution. This is a one-time print job, so make your request now. Return the completed order form as an email attachment to Rita Arni at rita.arni@health.mo.gov by July 2, 2010.

Text4Baby is a free mobile information service that provides pregnant women and new moms with information to help them care for their health and give their babies the best possible start in life. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, Office of Women’s Health is a partner in this educational service with the National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition (HMHB).

WIC participants may sign up for the service by texting BABY to 511411 (or BEBE in Spanish) to receive free text messages each week, timed to the due date or baby’s date of birth. Since Text4Baby launched in February 2010, we have learned that women who do not have a participating text4baby wireless carrier, and TracFone users, will not be able to receive the text messages. The text4baby service will be denied and the woman will not be charged for the text minutes. Text4baby mobile phone service partners are listed at http://www.text4baby.org.

Pettis County Healthy Kids Carnival: Read about the June 22, 2010 Pettis County Healthy Kids Carnival at http://www.sedaliademocrat.com/news/connor-24834-healthy-fun.html. WIC staff planned and partially funded the carnival through the regular WIC nutrition budget and enlisted the help of the entire health center staff for the day. Area organizations, including Family Nutrition Education Program, Early Head Start, and Medicaid providers participated by setting up booths. Food 4 Kids USDA Summer Food Service Program gave over 100 free lunches to children under 18 at the carnival. State Fair Community College nursing students set up nine stations about physical activity and nutrition as part of a graded project. Carnival games included puppet shows, an obstacle course (a favorite of young boys who wanted to be timed), grocery shopping for nutritious foods using small grocery carts borrowed from area vendors (kids loved the grocery store), a mystery box where children guessed the fruit or vegetable by feel, wacky WICY bowling using cereal boxes, juice containers and Bush’s beans cans, a tricycle maze, sandbox with buried food models, duck pond and beanbag toss. Simple healthy snacks prepared by WIC Nutritionists were a popular station, as was the “watering hole.” WIC Coordinator Mary Lou Shane reports that some neighborhood children came and had so much fun that they spent the whole day. To learn more about sponsoring a similar event or Fit WIC MO activity in your community, you may contact Mary Lou Shane at 660.827.4599 or email her at shanem@lpha.mopublic.org.

National WIC Association’s (NWA) 2011 Calendars: The State Office is purchasing the 2011 National WIC Association’s (NWA) Calendars for local WIC providers. (English – 80,000 copies; Spanish – 8,000 copies) The increased quantities should allow local WIC providers to provide one calendar per WIC family.
The State office has developed a simple survey to determine which agencies are interested in receiving the 2011 NWA WIC Calendar (English and Spanish). Local WIC Coordinators will receive an e-mail message with a link to the survey from Takako Tagami during the week of July 5, 2010. Each agency must complete the survey by August 4, 2010. If you have any questions, please contact Takako Tagami at Takako.Tagami@health.mo.gov.